Conventional pharmaceutical packaging has shortcomings with regard to drug delivery devices, which create problems for both the manufacturer and end user. For example, it is known to distribute devices including syringes, vials, ampoules, test tubes, and similarly shaped elongated components in packaging that incorporates foam or plastic elements to separate and pad the device or device component. The manufacturer that incorporates foam or plastic elements in its packaging to protect the device carries an increased inventory and employs a more complicated manufacturing system to produce its packaging. Further, the conventional manufacturer typically produces one kind of package to be filled by automated means and another kind to be filled by hand, which increases inventory and the number of product lines.
In addition, conventional manufacturers pack drug delivery devices tightly and in the most efficient manner possible—from the perspective of shipping cost savings—at the expense of the end user who has limited physical mobility, such as an end user with arthritis of the fingers. Such conventional packaging normally orients the device in the difficult to access vertical position; and, where conventional packaging orients the device in a horizontal position the devices are typically stacked directly on top of each other. It is also known to distribute such devices loose—or loose, but individually wrapped—in conventional boxes without a means for holding and securing the devices.
Conventional manufacturers of drug delivery device packaging typically do not provide a child-resistant feature to prevent unauthorized access, or a stopping feature to prevent accidental spillage of the stored products. Where these features do exist, they exist at the expense of easy access for the end user with limited dexterity. Neither does the known drug delivery device packaging provide ample space to place consumer information in the form of appropriately sized graphics, an integral holder for data storage such as a pamphlet or mini-disc, or instructional indicia adjacent to each device. Also conventional manufacturers are not known to mix devices but only distribute similar devices together. This convention requires the end user with a complicated drug regimen to create and maintain an unnecessarily extensive inventory of drug delivery devices to fill their needs.
End users are familiar with the disposal problems created by the use of drug delivery devices. Typically, spent vials, ampoules, test tubes, and components must be sealed or otherwise protected in order to be disposed of safely. While it is known to dispose of needles in a separate sealable and rigid container, there remains a need for packaging that serves as a safe means of disposal for similar devices, such as spent containers.
It is apparent from a survey of the packaging arts that there exists a need for a system and apparatus that secures and protects items such as drug delivery devices and components thereof, allows for improved manufacturing processes, may include child-resistant and spill-prevention features, stores a variety of items in response to the end users' needs, is fitted for easy access by the end user with limited dexterity, has sufficient area to receive graphics and related information, and provides a means for safe disposal.